The following is a copy of the transcripts of an interview between Dotty Jones,
ID: 3783820 • Letter: T
Question
The following is a copy of the transcripts of an interview between Dotty Jones, Manager of Employee Relations, and Kira Webster, a systems analyst working on the ESSS project. Dotty is the key user contact for this project. The goal of this interview is gather additional details about the problems Mr. Mills talked about in the initial interview and to obtain the necessary information to complete the Problems, Opportunities, Objectives, and Constraints Matrix.
Exhibit 2.1
Scene: Kira Webster is meeting with Dotty Jones, Manager of Employee Relations, at Ms Jones' office. Ms. Webster scheduled the interview with Ms. Jones to talk about the problems that exist with the current system.
Dotty: Good morning, Kira. How can I help you today?
Kira: I wanted to ask you some questions based on what Mr. Mills and I talked about a few days ago. He told me that you would be able to provide me with the additional information that I needed in order to understand how you use the current Employee Information system and the problems you have been experiencing.
Dotty: I will help all I can.
Kira: That’s great. Mr. Mills mentioned the problems you are having with the employee directory — that it is always out of date and that it consumes a great deal of Alice’s time to maintain. Is there anything else that you can add?
Dotty: Well it definitely should be online and integrated with our E-mail system. In this day and age it is ridiculous to put that out in hardcopy. It changes too much and it requires too much effort from our end to maintain. Alice’s time could be better utilized elsewhere. In fact I want to see that micro system go away.
Kira: What should replace it?
Dotty: Something that everyone can access via the Web from any location.
Kira: But wouldn’t Alice still have to maintain the data that is viewed via the Web?
Dotty: In some cases, but if we provided a mechanism to allow employees to update their own data and their data alone it would cut down on the amount of time Alice would spend from 12 hours per week to probably 1 or 2. And what is great is she would only have to enter the changes into one system and the changes would be available real-time. Which means all the other systems would have access to the employee’s latest, most current information.
Kira: What happens if the system went offline? Wouldn’t people still want a paper copy for back-up purposes?
Dotty: I don't think the company directory part of the system would be so crucial that minor downtime would be a problem. Aren't there ways to have backup websites or something? What is crucial, though, is that the system be secure. Could you imagine what would happen if a headhunter got into that web site? It would be like going to a smorgasbord.
Kira: Mr. Mills indicated the current mainframe system was too costly to operate and maintain. Can you explain what he meant?
Dotty: Sure. I’m sure you know that mainframes, although very powerful and useful, are extremely expensive computers. In order for the company to recoup the cost of the machine, it charges for the use of the machine in terms of computer cycles and data storage. We had over 11,500 change transactions alone last year and that doesn’t account for transactions to correct errors in the data, plus the transactions to initially input new employee data. And since the current system is over 10 years old, it requires a significant amount of IS labor to support it in terms of enhancements, fixes, backups, and so on. All of those costs come out of our budget since we are the owners of the system.
Kira: Wouldn’t you have the same types of costs in a new system?
Dotty: To a degree, but the new servers and software, I am told, cost almost 300 times less than mainframes and therefore the operating cost is significantly cheaper. Also, the IS support to maintain a high-quality new system should be cheaper. That is if we develop it correctly to be flexible and easily adaptable to changes. I expect we could save up to 50 percent of our operating costs.
Kira: Mr. Mills mentioned that reports were a problem with the current system. Can you elaborate?
Dotty: For one thing the system does not have an ad-hoc query and reporting facility that we as users can use. Currently, if we need a new report we have to submit a request to IS. Depending on the backlog and the priority of the request, IS may not have time to work on it for months. By then we may not need it anymore. I am positive if we had such a facility it would not only make our job easier but it would also cut down on IS’s workload also because we wouldn’t have to bug them as much.
Kira: Who should have access to the ad-hoc reporting feature? All employees?
Dotty: No. Employees should see only their own data except for the online directory. So they don't need the ad-hoc feature. Just managers.
Kira: Mr. Mills was extremely sensitive about the United Way program having less than desirable employee participation. Is that really a fault of the current system?
Dotty: I don’t think so, but you know us users. If something is not right it must be the system’s fault. What Mr. Mills is really saying is that he wants the new system to provide a facility that makes it easy for employees to sign up and manage their deductions from their desk. Also, he wants to provide managers with the tools to monitor the participation activity in case they have to provide encouragement, if you know what I mean.
Kira: I believe I’m getting the picture.
Dotty: Right now the process to sign up is cumbersome and time consuming for the employees. And there are no reports for the managers to monitor participation.
Kira: I think that covers all my questions – for right now, at least. I may have to bug you again, though.
Dotty: Anytime. Kira. I'm glad to help if it leads to a system that solves our problems.
write down Mission Statemnet, Actoer list roles, Responsibility and Use case(5).
Explanation / Answer
A)Mission Statemnet and Actoer list roles and Responsibility and Use case:
Kira:Good morning, Ms. Jones.
Dotty:Hi. How can I help you today?
Kira:The next step is to prepare what are called use cases. These detail out the interaction between users and the system to accomplish user goals. They help us document the requirements for the system so that we build what you really need.
Dotty:Well, I'm all for that. How do we proceed?
Kira:What I want to get out of this meeting is an understanding on everything the Employee Self Service System needs to do and who will be using each part of that functionality. Why don't we talk about the employee directory part of the system first? As I understand it, any employee can view the phone numbers for any other employee. Would they just get the whole list, or would it be searchable somehow?
Dotty:First, it would be more than just phone numbers. It would have the employee's office location, department, job title, and supervisor. I think it should be driven by some sort of search screen. In my experience, one might want to search by first or last name, department, location, job title, or supervisor. Or combinations of them. Can we do that?
Kira:Sure. We can give the user a screen to enter any or all of that. When the user clicks OK, the system would first show the user a list of everyone who matches that criteria and links on each person to go view the complete information. Does that sound good?
Dotty:Absolutely. But only after they do a successful logon. This is confidential information that can't be open to the public.
Kira:Right. Now, we have to think about where that data comes from. You said in our last meeting that you wanted employees to be able to update their own information from the web.
Dotty:Right. But the key word there is "update." When we hire a new employee, we initially collect that information with paper forms to comply with government regulations. Our staffing department would then enter the new employee profile.
Kira:What all does that profile consist of?
Dotty:All the data we have spoken of so far – name, job title, supervisor, etc. – plus emergency contact information and all the options for payroll deductions and United Way contributions.
Kira:What kind of payroll deduction options are there?
Dotty:United Way, parking, extra life insurance, and the pre-tax medical reimbursement plan.
Kira:All of those are things are deducted from pay checks, right?
Dotty:Right.
Kira:Refresh my memory on the pre-tax medical reimbursement plan.
Dotty:Employees can set aside money from their gross pay before taxes to go into a special fund for paying out-of-pocket medical expenses – things that the medical insurance doesn't pay.
Kira:Does the system need to also track the medical payments that come out of that fund?
Dotty:No, that's handled by the insurance company. It's like federal tax to us. We collect it and turn it over to the insurance company and don't have anything to do with it after that.
Kira:How do the United Way contributions work?
Dotty:Employees have several options. They can make a one-time contribution, a contribution of a fixed amount, or a contribution of a percentage of their gross pay. All the contributions come out of their paycheck.
Kira:And employees can change their participation level at any time?
Dotty:Right. That would be part of the update profile process that employees can do online. They can change their phone number, emergency contact info, and any optional payroll deduction. And don't forget that Mr. Mills wanted the system to provide some kind of report to allow managers to monitor the United Way participation of employees they directly supervise.
Kira:What would that process look like?
Dotty:After a user logs on, can the system automatically know if that user supervises anyone?
Kira:Sure, we'll be keeping supervisor information.
Dotty:Then the system can give supervisors that option. The report just needs to list all employees that the manager supervises and whether or not they participate. We don't care about the level of participation. We just want to get as many people as possible to participate at some level.
Kira:OK. And if the user doesn't supervise anyone, we can even have the system hide or disable that option.
Dotty:Great.
Kira:I have a question. If an employee changes jobs or gets a promotion, is the employee responsible for updating the job title and supervisor information?
Dotty:No. In fact, employees should not be able to change their own pay rates or job title or supervisor. That's what we call secure data. All promotions, job changes, and relocations have paperwork that go through HR. We already have someone in the staffing department enter those changes to the present system, so I think it would be best if that continued with the new system.
Kira:What should that interaction look like?
Dotty:In the present system, the user types in an employee ID or name. That looks up the employee profile. Then we just change any data that needs to be changed and submit it.
Kira:We had talked about ad-hoc query and reporting functionality.
Dotty:Right. Managers need to see more information than what will be in the employee directory. They need to see salary or wage information. They may need to see emergency contact information. They may need to see a list of all the employees located in a given building or all the rooms in a building that don't have employees in them.
Kira:It sounds wide open. If the managers know the SQL database language, we could provide some read-only views and an SQL interface.
Dotty:Well, I don't understand most of what you just said. I have heard of SQL, and I think that would be a good idea. I wouldn't know how to use it. But I think some of our managers could - or else have people on their staff they would trust to use it. But for us mortals, I'd like to also see a way to pull some general information with a lot of customization.
Kira:Can you give me an example?
Dotty: In a lot of cases, managers need to look something up on a single employee. They could see a list of employees, pick one, and then see the complete profile on that employee. The manager could then pick the kind of information they need to see – name/address, salary/wage, location, emergency contact, deduction options, etc. Let's call it an employee detail lookup. In other cases, managers need to see groups of employees that fit some criteria – job code, building, department, salary/wage range, home city or phone exchange, employment status, etc. It would be nice if the manager was given a place to enter any or all of that information and then the system would display a list of employees that match the criteria. Let's call that an employee group lookup. They could just print the list or maybe the system would also let them select any one employee on the list and it would drill down into the complete profile I was talking about for the employee lookup option.
Kira:That would be great. It sounds like you've been thinking about this.
Dotty:I have. I'm really excited about it.
Kira:Would managers be able to lookup any employee or just those that they supervise?
Dotty:All employees in HR need to access to all employee data. But we don't want managers to look up the salary of other managers. So for people other than HR, the system needs to limit access to employees that a manager directly or indirectly supervises.
Kira:What do you mean by "indirectly?"
Dotty:For instance, Mr. Mills is my direct supervisor, so he should be able to see my data. Mr. Mills reports to Mr. Turner, the president. So Mr. Turner indirectly supervises me and should also be able to see my data. In fact, Mr. Turner should be able to see anyone's data because he's at the top of the organization chart.
Kira:I get it. But if HR people or high-level managers have access to all or many employees, I don't know if it would work for the employee detail lookup to view a list of employees and pick one. There would be too many employees in the list.
Dotty:You're right. I suppose even the simple employee detail lookup should have a mandatory selection by department. Then they could view employees of any one department and drill down to view the employee profile on any one employee. The employee group lookup would display more selection options and then view a list of employees with the same option to drill down to view an employee profile.
Kira:Would they then have an edit option.
Dotty:I don't think so. I could get overruled on this, but I don't really want managers messing around with the data. We'll have employees update their own non-secure information and leave the rest of it to HR.
Kira:OK. Well, I'll get back to work. I'm going to write up what we call use case narratives that describe the scenarios and interactions we've discussed. They aren't anything techie – just the steps of how users will interact with the system. You'll be getting them for review in a few days.
Dotty:Great. I look forward to seeing them.
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